Question 5Shakeira Darbyshire

How did you attract/address your audience?• Front CoverFor my front cover I knew immediately that it was the first thing the audience was going to see so I knew it had to be extremely striking for the audience to consider buying it. I followed the majority of the codes and conventions which professional magazines have to guide me in the right direction

At the beginning, I started with my colour scheme which I retrieved from my audience research. They decided to have the colours black, white and green so these were the colours I used. I started by making my masthead green, in addition to my cover lines and banner. Then I made the additional information below the cover lines white so it didn’t blend in with the rest of the text. The person I used for my main image was wearing black clothing with white on it which matches my colour scheme perfectly.

In my main image I made sure that the person was looking at the camera as direct address is key when wanting to attract and address your magazine. I also made them do the rock hand gesture and stick her tongue out to convey the punk genre.

I used a striking font for my masthead so that the audience would notice it and so that it didn’t blend in with the rest of the front cover. The banner is in the same green used throughout the magazine because it is eye catching and will again attract more people to look and consider buying the magazine.

Contents PageFor the contents page, it had to attract the audience because once they have been persuaded to pick up the magazine and consider buying it, the contents page is the next page they are going to see. Therefore, it has to grab their attention and make them want to buy it. So, when I started making my contents page I had to follow the codes and conventions professional magazines had to help me draw in an audience.

Due to there having to be a lot of text on contents pages, I wanted to ensure there were images that distract them from the large amount of text. I continued with the colour scheme from my front cover of black, white and green by making the title ‘Contents’ in black bold writing to stand out. I added a block of green behind my title to make it more colourful and look more professional.

Additionally, when taking my photographs I wanted to make them look as intriguing as possible because I know that the images represent the contents of the magazine. So I have a picture of the band ‘The Violets’ for example, which links to the article for new and upcoming bands.

I added a few lines of extra information about the articles to give customers a clue about what each article is about so they know whether they are going to be interested in reading them or not. I ensured the information was vague so it teases the audience and makes them want to carry on reading to find out what happens.

Double Page SpreadFor my double page spread, I used several codes and conventions which published magazines used so that audiences were addressed and drawn to my magazine.

In my image on my double page spread I took a photo of the band Cease Fire Inc. When taking this image there wasn’t direct address throughout all of the band members as one of them was looking away. This made the band look more mysterious and interesting which will make the audience want to read about them. I added a pull quote onto the image which was featured in the band interview. This will hopefully meet the audience’s eyes and make them want to read the article.

The headline for the article is ‘Rocking their way up to centre stage’ which is in a striking font in large writing. This will be the first thing the audience will see, therefore it has to catch their attention. To do this I added a green background behind the masthead which will make it jump off the page.

Due to there being a lot of text in the article, I added another pull quote in the middle of the article in green and a different and larger font to the article text. This should give the audience an interest to see what the rest of the article has to say and give them an interest into Cease Fire Inc due to them being a new and upcoming band.